Just get a "preseasoned" Lodge skillet, Amazon has good prices...size will be a matter of personal preference, I personally have a 12" (good for bigger jobs, but heavy as hell) and a 9" for cornbread and smaller, everyday sorts of tasks.

Be forewarned non-enameled cast iron is somewhat fussy to use - it needs to be quite well seasoned or things can stick badly (you'll want to cook a lot of stuff like bacon and cornbread when it's new), you have to be careful washing it or you can strip the seasoning, you can't leave it sitting around wet or it can rust, etc.

I like enameled cast iron for Dutch Ovens and gratin dishes and the like.

I'm sure there are minor differences, but IMO, you shouldn't be paying more then $15-$25 for a 10-12 inch skillet. Last time I bought one I just went to an army surplus store in my area (which is just a fancy name for a camping store). I think I paid about $15 for a 12 inch skillet. Which was good because for as much as people love them, I really never got into it (and I do plenty of cooking). I never really got it seasoned properly. It was a pain to clean/dry/store. I think it was purposely trying to burn me. It was heavier then hell. It eventually decided a skillet shouldn't be that much work and stopped using it.
Now, stainless steel pots and pans on the other hand are a friggen godsend.

I had one for years, and was fairly anal-retentive about cleaning it carefully and seasoning it regularly; I loved it but it got left behind in a move. Periodically I'd rub it down with oil and bake it at low heat in the oven for a couple of hours.

The ebay link for $149 is for an antique. You get it because it reminds you of you grandmother's skillet or you have an interest in old things, not because it is different from the $15 lodge from amazon.

I bought my last pre-seasoned Lodge at their outlet store for about $10 a couple of years ago. It's great for cornbread or frying chicken. I've done biscuits in it as well.

I use a Lodge cast iron dutch oven with legs for camping and one without for inside cooking. There's nothing like them. I also have one 14" X 4" skillet with a lid for frying chicken when the whole gang's here. It was passed down from my grandmother and was purchased sometime before WWII.

Yup, Lodge pre-seasoned. Or Lodge non-seasoned, if you can't find the other - but you'll need to season it up right. Fine cast iron, should run you around $25 or so. Walmart, Target, or your local surplus store. Better yet, check the thrift stores.

My biggest concern about buying from the Lodge website would be the cost of shipping.

The enameled stuff is useful for certain things, but unless you know you need it, you don't need it.

Hit Goodwill or Salvation Army. They usually have cast iron around somewhere. There is absolutely ZERO reason to pay triple figures for cast iron. The stuff is rather simple. Just get a Lodge.

Yep. I wouldn't pay more than $30 for a good cast-iron skillet.

As for seasoning it, I first read about flaxseed oil here on the Dope maybe six months to a year ago, and it really works amazingly well. Here's a link to the process. It's not necessary at all to use flaxseed, but I've gotten the best results in the quickest amount of time using it.

I see them at garage sales all the time. I have a couple of them that I've picked up here and there--none of which I've paid more than a few dollars for. Last summer, I got a really nice dutch oven (with a lid) for $5. I wanted to take it camping, but honestly, I use it for stews--instead of simmering the stew on the stove, I simply stick it all in the dutch oven and pop it in the oven to bake for a couple of hours.

I have one skillet in which I make cornbread and Irish soda bread (not at the same time). Are they heavy? Yep. Can they be a PITA to season and clean? Sometimes. But, I grew up with family that used them all the time. They're not my primary cooking pan, but for some things, they are my preference.

But I'll never go back to regular cast iron. This should last forever, so I won't need to, really.

A cast iron pan you can put in the dishwasher. Yes, cleaning the traditional pan was never all that bothersome (usually), but it's not sticking it in the dishwasher easy. or leaving it overnight when there was no after-dinner cleanup and no worrying about the metal at all.

Or cooking strongly-flavoured meats or sauces, then making pancakes in the morning with no trace of the previous meal.

I cherished my cast irons, loved the decades-old seasoning they had. But they just don't compare to the Olvida.

A good skillet is milled in the interior, not pebbly-textured. It should be as smooth as a sheet of glass on the cooking surface.

I agree completely.

Quote:

I don't care for any brand I've seen being currently sold (not that I've seen them all).

For years I haven't seen any in stores that have the flat machined surface, which I find terribly frustrating. I assume that's what you're referring to. It amazes me that the manufacturers don't provide them, and it amazes me that the customers don't insist on them.

For years I haven't seen any in stores that have the flat machined surface, which I find terribly frustrating. I assume that's what you're referring to. It amazes me that the manufacturers don't provide them, and it amazes me that the customers don't insist on them.

If you properly care for the skillet, it will have a flat smooth surface.

Lodge skillets, the only decent ones currently for sale, aren't. They have a pebbled surface that will never be smooth, even with heavy seasoning.

Which is why this "milled is the best" thinking is bullshit. No matter what, you don't cook on the iron surface, you cook on the layer of seasoning. The food never touches metal. Pebbled or concentric circles is irrelevant.

Which is why this "milled is the best" thinking is bullshit. No matter what, you don't cook on the iron surface, you cook on the layer of seasoning. The food never touches metal. Pebbled or concentric circles is irrelevant.

I'd trade 20 Lodges for a single milled Wagner in decent condition. (Or pay 20x the price to get one on eBay, which you actually don't have to do).

I feel like I'm the only person who loves my cast iron pans, but still doesn't treat them with the deep reverence that others seem to. I have a few - some inherited from family, one found rusty and crusty at a junk store (paid $2), a couple from Goodwill - again in the $3-5 range, and a couple bought new.

I do not wash them in pure spring water, with perhaps a wee scrub with some genuine sea salt, followed immediately by drying them with an irish linen tea towel...
I wash and scrub them in hot, soapy water and usually throw them on a burner to dry. Sometimes they get rust spots and I use a curly kate to remove it. I don't worry about the seasoning on them - they all seem to be well seasoned, despite my lack of effort to preserve it. I have meat pans and sweet pans because I don't like onion flavoured French toast, but that's about as complicated as it gets for me.

I would never spend $149 for a cast iron pan. WOW! Keep your eyes open at garage sales and thrift stores, or just pick up a cheapo one from wherever.

Which is why this "milled is the best" thinking is bullshit. No matter what, you don't cook on the iron surface, you cook on the layer of seasoning. The food never touches metal. Pebbled or concentric circles is irrelevant.

I understand what you're saying in principle, but it just isn't my experience. I own two Lodge skillets and a Griswold. The only obvious immediate difference is the finish of the inside. The Griswold works much, much, much better.

I can't tell you why, but they're all cared for the same, have been seasoned, maintained, and well-used, but the Griswold is way, way better for nonstick cooking.

I'll also mention that my Griswold has a spot of rough surface where (I assume) it's rusted slightly below the seasoning. The surface is still seasoned. That one spot is the only spot where food will stick.

I understand what you're saying in principle, but it just isn't my experience. I own two Lodge skillets and a Griswold. The only obvious immediate difference is the finish of the inside. The Griswold works much, much, much better.

I have to agree. I inherited two 8-inch cast-iron pans of unknown provenance when my wife's grandmother passed away and the cooking surface looks like glass, it is so smooth. It is not a matter of decades of seasoning--that's just the way the pan was made. (Apparently, it was "milled," if I'm reading the comments here correctly.) While my Lodge (or something similar) cast iron pan performs well, it's not at all like those milled cast iron pans, which really are almost like Teflon in their non-stick properties. It's possible that my own Lodge still needs a few more years of seasoning. I don't know why it would perform differently--in theory I would think it doesn't matter once a base coat of seasoning is established--but it does, at least in my experience.

I have a no-name cast iron frying pan from a discount store and it's fine. Better yet last spring walking my daughter to the bus stop, I picked a beautiful old Griswold "pancake skillet" off my next door neighbor's trash.